Part of a series of "rambling reflections" by Pastor David Riley – a church minister located on the Australian Gold Coast. Make sure you click the "follow" button to receive an update on these articles as soon as they're posted.

You would think that cleaning out a shed would be pretty dull. But lurking in ours was a dark and dastardly family secret…

A few year ago, while helping to clean out my grandparents’ garage, I came across a few dozen plastic milk crates being used as stackable storage boxes. Over lunch, I casually asked my grandmother where my grandfather might have collected them from. My grandmother looked thoughtful, then paled, and then a shocked expression stole across her face. She let out a breathless “Oh, my goodness!!”

Over the next hour she related a crime so shocking, so disturbing, so heinous, that Netflix might refuse to do a series on it… so I’ll have to tell you the story instead.

During the 1980’s, when the world was young and unspoiled, life was simple in the sleepy township of Bundeena, a community far enough south of Sydney to avoid both hustle and bustle.

That is until THE SCANDAL broke.

News spread across back fences and through the community that someone, in the middle of the night, was stealing milk crates from the local corner shop. Each evening, three or four crates – normally used to deliver milk to the homes of local townspeople – were being stolen in audacious night-time raids.

Many thought the innocence of the town was also being stolen by this shocking crime.

As always, the youth were blamed. Police were notified, and the little grocery store organised a safer way to return the empty milk-crates.

Over the years the township of Bundeena tried to move on – but many in the community pointed to this incident as the first time people started locking their homes at night!

Little did they know that in their midst was a seventy-year-old man – my grandfather – harbouring a secret stash of stolen milk-crates. In fact, it was about forty of these “secrets”, and they were storing fishing line, old tennis balls, and gardening tools.

Finally, “The Great Bundeena Milk Crate Heist” was no longer a mystery. My very own grand-father was the culprit. I felt like I was Sherlock Holmes as I pieced together the crime over lunch with my grandmother.

But what was I to do now? What would we do with the family shame stored in all those crates? My grandmother made a tough moral decision. She decided to make me take them all back.

“Because it’s the right thing to do”, she said – “We need to make things right!”

The way I saw it I had two options:- one option was to front up to the shop and try to explain the actions of my grandfather fifteen years previously… and explain that my grandmother now wanted all the crates returned.

The other alternative was to take them back in the middle of the night – like a coward – hoping no-one would see me.

So at midnight that night, I dropped forty stolen milk-crates by the door of the shop and hurried home.

As I lay in bed late that night I imagined the look on the store owner’s face when he arrived for work the next day – and found milk crates not seen for almost two decades. That’s a long time to keep milk, even in the fridge!

But at least, as my Nan had put it, ‘a wrong was made right.’

Do you feel like your life needs a clean out? Or, like my grandparents’ shed, are you storing some secret sin or mistake? And does that stored guilt need to be made right if possible – even if it takes an awkward apology, some kind of restitution, or even just one more attempt to re-start a broken relationship?

God Himself wants to make right this world – even though He didn’t cause the breakdown. Day by day He is working towards a new world, a world without selfishness, greed, arrogance, broken families, hurting children, the loss of loved ones to sickness and death.

That’s why He came as a baby 2,000 years ago.

He came to reset the world. To make things right. And God also wants to make things right with you personally.

So… do you have any metaphorical milk-crates you’d like to give back to Him? It feels great when you do. Just ask my grandmother.

About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this series? Click here to read the inspiring story of how one soldier’s sacrifice changed an entire prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.

Benjamin Franklin was a famous eighteenth century American thinker, writer, and inventor. One of his most well-known experiments was to prove that lightening was electrically charged – and Franklin did this by flying a kite in a storm with a metal key attached to the kite.

Benjamin Franklin lived in the U.S. city of Philadelphia and hoped to interest his fellow neighbours in the possible benefits of street-lighting at night. Ben Franklin didn’t simply try to persuade his fellow citizens by talking about street-lighting, what he did do was practically demonstrate the benefits. Franklin placed a candle in an ornamental lantern on a long bracket on the outside wall of his own home. He ensured the glass on his lantern was highly polished, and each day as the sun began to set Benjamin Franklin would personally light the lantern’s wick. His neighbours would see the light from a distance and how it helped them avoid obstacles and stepping on rocks near Franklin’s home. Soon, other people also began to place a lantern outside their own home and before too long street lighting took shape in the American city of Philadelphia.

Benjamin Franklin didn’t simply talk about the benefits of street lighting, he let others see how it would make a difference.

In the same way, it’s not enough to only talk about the reality of Jesus Christ – our family and neighbours need to see how surrendering to our Saviour has made a difference in your life.

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus told His listeners in the famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’ – “so, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify the Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

Allow your light to shine so a world in darkness may see our loving Creator more clearly.

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About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and he lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this series? Click here to read the funny story of how one orchestra member saved his colleagues from their famous boss’s wild temper tantrums

There are stories from Africa a century ago of the locals trapping monkeys to sell to the colonialists as pets.

The way they trapped the wild monkeys was simple and almost unbelievable – and the method has a spiritual message for us today.

Monkeys in the wild are very elusive. As soon as they see or hear someone approaching they jump quickly high into the tall trees and hide themselves in the canopy. The only way the white colonialists could catch them was to shoot them trying to only injure the monkeys and not kill them – but you can see straight away this method of catching monkeys had significant flaws.

The locals had a better method – one that captured the monkeys without any harm or shots being fired.

They tied a bottle to the base of a small tree and placed a delicious peanut inside the bottle. These professional monkey catchers would then walk away and give the bottle plenty of space for the monkeys to feel safe. A monkey would smell the peanut and come down to investigate. Seeing the peanut at the bottom of the bottle the monkey would squeeze his hand through the bottle’s opening and grab hold of the yummy meal.

Once the monkey had hold of the peanut, the monkey catchers would then calmly walk towards the tree. The monkey would see the humans approaching and scream and flail about, but the monkey couldn’t escape from the bottle tied to the tree. His small hand that had squeezed through the bottle’s opening was now formed into a fist as he held onto the peanut… and because the monkey wasn’t willing to let go of his food he wouldn’t be able to pull his hand out of the bottle’s opening.

A still image from a century old film of how to catch monkeys

The monkey catchers would then grab hold of the monkey, tie him up, and then train him for a lifetime of captivity as a pet to some wealthy foreigner.

For the sake of not letting go of a peanut the monkey spent a lifetime in captivity.

Before we pass judgment on the monkey or comment on their foolishness, how many of us are holding onto metaphorical “peanuts” in our lives and being held captive by them.

We remember with resentment the harsh comment by a former school teacher or friend – and allow the residual bitter feelings to well up inside us and just like the monkey we’re held captive to something that happened a long time ago. Or we allow someone else’s beliefs about us to become our own limiting beliefs and we’re held back from becoming the person our Creator wants us to be. Sometimes we even hold onto an unfulfilling job or relationship and never truly experience the freedom the Lord wants us to have.

In the Gospel of Luke it records Jesus standing up to preach in a synagogue one Sabbath, and he says to those willing to listen: “”The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for I have been anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. I have been sent to proclaim that captives shall be released… and the oppressed will be set free.”

How many of us are not living life with more freedom because of a peanut we’re holding on to? How many of us feel like we’re captive to something else? Won’t you let go, and let God give you a life more abundant. Won’t you let your Creator set you free.

Let go… and let God.

To view a YouTube clip of locals catching monkeys a century ago click here

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About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and he lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this series? Click here to read the sad and inspiring story of a soldier who was willing to die for his fellow prisoners.

Captain Ernest Gordon was a company commander in the British army during the Second World War. He was captured by the Japanese and spent three years as their prisoner. During his captivity Captain Gordon – or simply “Ernie” to his friend – was forced to work building the infamous Thai-Burma railway line, including the bridge over the River Kwai.

In his autobiographical book “Miracle on the River Kwai” Ernie Gordon recounts how the barbarous treatment by their Japanese captors had caused the behaviour of the prisoners to degenerate. These British prisoners-of-war were starting to be cruel and malicious to each other, but then one afternoon something terrible happened. One of the shovels was discovered to be missing on the work site, and the Japanese officer in charge of the unit was furious. He ordered that the person who stole the shovel to come forward otherwise he would execute every last one of them there and then. It was obvious the Japanese commanding officer meant what he said as he pulled out his pistol.

Unexpectedly, one of the Scottish soldiers stepped forward. The Japanese officer put his gun away, picked up one of the remaining shovels, and beat the man to death with it.

When the violent execution was over, the other prisoners-of-war picked up their friend’s body and carried it to their next tool check. They planned to bury their friend’s body at the end of the day when they were given permission. As they again counted the tools they discovered that all the shovels were there. A mistake had been made in the previous tool count and actually no shovel had been stolen.

News of the soldier’s death travelled rapidly through the whole camp. An innocent man had willingly volunteered to die in order to save others.

Captain Ernest Gordon’s book was made into a major film in 2002

The episode had an overwhelming impact on the entire prison camp. The prisoners-of-war stopped mirroring their captors’ degrading behaviour and they began to treat each other with kindness, just like brothers should.

The result of one man’s sacrifice for others created a miracle

Captain Ernest Gordon says he became a Christian in that P.O.W. camp, and when he returned from the war he became a minister of the Gospel. It was the examples of Christ-in-Action during his imprisonment – just like the fellow soldier who willingly died for others – that convinced Ernie of God’s sacrifice for each of us. Captain Gordon experienced the transforming power of sacrificial love.

Captain Gordon became a Christian in the Japanese prison camp and went on to become a church minister – working with Martin Luther King in the 1960’s to advance the civil rights movement.

Jesus says in the the Gospel of Mark: “For I did not come to be served, but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” And our Saviour willingly died so you and I might live life more abundantly.

Sacrificial love has a transforming power. Won’t you accept the sacrificial love your Creator has for you, and come to the cross of Jesus Christ?

Click here to read the fascinating story of someone who dared take Communion alongside the Duke of Wellington.

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About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this series? Click here to read the inspiring story of an impoverished monk who stopped the carnage in Rome’s Colloseum

John Paton was a Christian missionary to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific – a group of fourteen islands we know today as Vanuatu.

A native of Scotland, John Paton arrived in the New Hebrides 1858 with his young wife. But only a few months later he would lose his wife and young son to tropical fever. Despite the early tragedy John continued to work on the islands for decades. As a minister, educator, a developer of small industries for the locals, he was a strong advocate against the practice of slavery in the region.

One evening some hostile natives surrounded John’s house and were intent on burning out John and his second wife and killing them – including their young children. The Patons prayed as you would expect a missionary family would, and stayed awake all during that terror-filled night requesting God might deliver them. When daylight finally came they were amazed and relieved to see their attackers leaving. They thanked the Lord for his providence.

A year later, the chief of that tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief was surprised by the the question and replied: “Well… we couldn’t attack because of all those men who were there with you”. John Paton was socked because he knew no other men were there with them that night a year previous. The chief continued and said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with swords and spears circling the mission station. John Paton discovered he and his family were saved that night because God had sent a heavenly army to protect them.

There’s a similar story in the Bible where an opposing army surrounds the city where the prophet Elisha is staying. Elisha tells those close enough to hear: “Don’t be afraid….Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16).

Elisha then prays to God that his colleague might see more clearly – and the eyes of Elisha’s servant are spiritually opened to see why Elisha told him not to be afraid. Something happens to the servant’s eyes and he sees what Elisha had known all along – the servant suddenly sees an even bigger army of God’s angels surrounding the enemy army, and these angels were ready to protect those who stayed faithful to God.

Do you feel under attack at the moment? Is there a difficulty or a disaster weighing down heavily upon you? Keep faithful in prayer and know with confidence your Creator is surrounding you with all the heavenly help you need.

May the opening words to the 46th Psalm in the Bible be of comfort to you:

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times trouble.”

Click here to read a story of another faithful Scot – a dog named “Greyfriars Bobby” who waited by the grave of his owner for fourteen years.

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About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this series? Click here to read the fascinating story of a European king’s funeral and how in death we are all the same.

Michael Landy is an English artist who produced something a few years ago that both shocked and enthralled the British public.

London-born Landy spent three years cataloguing every possession he had in his life. Everything from a couple of postage stamps to his most important life documents such as his birth certificate and passport. He documented all his clothing (including his late father’s favourite sheep-skin coat), any old magazine he had, his books, and all his furniture. He wrote a list of everything he owned including his beloved SAAB sports car. His list of possessions came to 7,227 items exactly.

British artist Michael Landy standing in front of some of his list of 7,227 possessions

And in February 2001 Michael Landy, at the age of 37, then spent two weeks destroying EVERYTHING (yes everything, including the SAAB)! He set up conveyor belts in a shop window on London’s busiest street for shopping and invited people to watch as he disassembled, crushed, and shredded all his possessions. Over 45,000 people stopped at the shop window during the next two weeks as Michael Landy eradicated his life’s entire accumulation into nearly six tonnes of waste. The resulting bags of scrap were sent away to either be recycled or dumped into landfill.

Michael’s SAAB being disassembled and destroyed

At the end of the self-inflicted exercise Landy was left with nothing but the clothes he was standing in… and some financial debt!

The response from the British public ranged from anger and outrage for such a waste, to applause for his courageous stand against consumerism. It caused many to think about their own relationship with the material things in their lives.

Michael Landy sits amongst almost six tonnes of assorted waste as the London public look through the shop window on Oxford Street

In a similar way, Jesus Christ has been challenging us for two thousand years on how we approach possessions.

“What profits a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul?” Jesus poignantly asks us in Matthew 16:26. A few chapters later Jesus challenges a rich young man to give away all his possessions and be a part of Christ’s Kingdom, something the wealthy gentleman simply couldn’t do when he considered his worldly riches.

In our daily walk with Christ we’re told that our life is more than the sum of our possessions and status but is instead a realisation of who our Creator is and His love for each of us.

The Bible says Michael Landy’s destruction of all his earthly belongings in 2001 is simply a forerunner to what is going to happen at the return of Jesus to this world. Where reminded by the Apostle Peter that: “The return of the Lord will come unexpectedly like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; and everything will be destroyed…the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare for judgment”
(2 Peter 3:10).

As you look to our Lord’s return with expectation and readiness let’s make sure our possessions don’t take possession of us.

Click here to watch a short interview with Michael Landy about his experience destroying all his possessions

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About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and he lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this series? Click here to read the fascinating story of a European king’s funeral and how in death we are all the same

A painting by Englishman William Holman Hunt completed in the mid-nineteenth century was for many years the most famous picture in the British Empire.

Titled “The Light of the World” the painting was taken on world tours, and when it was brought to Australia in the early 1900’s it’s estimated that up to 80% of Australia’s population at the time came to see it.

Reports from the painting’s public viewings in Melbourne describe minor injuries in people stampeding in attempts view it. Large crowds are described as being in hushed reverence in front of the artwork. There are even reports of people fainting when they saw the painting.

The surprising aspect of this art story from over a hundred years ago is the painting – “The Light of the World” – is a portrait of Jesus Christ.

The artist had been inspired by a verse in the Bible, Revelation 3:20 – which says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

William Holman Hunt’s famous painting of Jesus as described in Revelation 3:20

And in the portrait Hunt paints Jesus standing with a lantern, knocking on a closed door overgrown with weeds. According to the artist this closed, dilapidated door represents the stubbornness of our hearts to have faith in Christ.

What’s not obvious when you first look at the painting is the door has no external handle or doorknob. The door can only be opened from the inside by the occupant of the home.

The message in the painting (and the words of Christ in Revelation 3:20) is clear: our Saviour Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts and knocking. And the person who hears that knock and also His quiet voice calling to them needs to open the door for Him. Christ doesn’t barge into our lives uninvited – His humility waits for each of us to open the door to Him.

Today the painting hangs in London’s famous St. Paul’s Cathedral, but the words of Christ in Revelation 3:20 that inspired the painting hang forever in our hearts.

Won’t you hear Christ knocking on your heart today and open the door for Him. He desires to come in and spend eternity in your company.

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About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and he lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this series? Click here to read the fascinating story of what the thirteenth-century theologian Thomas Aquinas said when he walked in on Pope Innocent II counting his gold and silver.

“IT WAS LIKE A WASHING MACHINE FROM HELL!” – Tony Bullimore

The English sailor Tony Bullimore shivered in the cold Southern Ocean waters. His upturned yacht was 1,500 miles south-west of the Australian coast and only 1,000 miles from Antarctica. He’d been in the water for four days after his boat was capsized by monstrous seas and bracing winds of up to a hundred miles an hour. “It was like a washing machine from hell!” was how Bullimore would later describe his experience. “But I couldn’t afford to get scared; I had to focus on how to stay alive for a little longer — just in case rescuers were coming.”

Tony Bullimore’s upturned yacht was tossed around the Southern Ocean for four days before rescuers found him.

Tony Bullimore survived by sheltering underneath his upturned hull in an air pocket, in complete darkness. His only food was taking an occasional bite from a chocolate bar he’d managed to scramble in the wreckage. The year was 1997, and this ship-wrecked sailor was presumed dead by family and the media after so many days missing in wild seas.

When the rescue ship – the HMAS Adelaide – finally arrived at the wreckage site, one of the highly trained team climbed aboard the upturned boat and began knocking on the exposed hull. As Tony Bullimore huddled in the cold, wet darkness can you imagine how he might have felt the moment he heard someone on the other side of his boat knocking. Tony says he started shouting `I’m coming, I’m coming!”. He took a few deep breaths, dove under the water from inside his capsized boat, and then emerged into the morning sunshine. He would later say the experience of coming into the light was “heaven, absolute heaven”. The captain of the rescue ship recorded Tony Bullimore’s first words as: “Thank God… It’s a miracle!”

This photo captures the moment rescuers knocked on the hull of his boat – and Tony Bullimore swam into the light after sheltering in his overturned boat for four days

The experience of the saving of Tony Bullimore twenty years ago from the Southern Ocean is similar to the those who’ve chosen to follow Christ. We too can feel lost in the swirling ocean of a confused existence, and yet Jesus – our spiritual rescuer – provides us with hope. “I stand at the door (of your heart) and knock” Jesus says in the book of Revelation. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and be with them.” (Rev. 3:20)

Can you hear the knocking of your Saviour on the hull of your heart? You may have given up hope – but the truth is your Creator has come, and He’s inviting you to take a few big breaths, to dive deep, and come into His light.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith? Click here to read the incredible story of how a rural monk unexpectedly closed down the gladiatorial violence of the Roman Coloseum.

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About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a Christian minister residing on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

As Ivan McGuire boarded the small airplane with his video camera, the experienced skydiver didn’t know this would be his final ever flight.

Ivan worked as a cameraman filming nervous student parachuters taking their first-ever jump. He’d made hundreds of these flights, and any fear of leaping out of a plane from a height of three kilometres had left Ivan long ago.

On April 5th, 1988 Ivan McGuire jumped from a plane with his heavy VHS recording deck strapped to his back and the camera mounted to his helmet. Ivan had already completed two of these filming jumps that day, so he was a little fatigued – which may account for his soon-to-be-discovered forgetfulness.

On this final jump for the day Ivan calmly filmed the student strapped to his instructor as they both went through their free-fall and finally opened their combined parachute. Ivan then reached around to open his parachute…. and discovered that he’d forgotten to put one on.

The surviving video footage then goes from relaxed to frenzied.

How had Ivan forgotten to put on a parachute? Maybe it was simply tiredness, or perhaps he’d mistaken the video pack on his back as his usual parachute. Imagine what might have gone through the experienced skydiver’s mind as he was free-falling to Earth from ten thousand feet with nothing to save him. The salvaged footage recorded from his helmet shows Ivan going from matter-of-fact calmness to understandable panic.

It seems Ivan McGuire – on the day of his death – had simply gone-through-the-motions of his normal daily routines, without ensuring he had one very important thing with him. His parachute!

As I reflect on this tragic story – can you forgive me as a minister of religion for likening it to a spiritual cautionary tale? Yes, we do need to live each day as if it might be our last. BUT… we also need to be double-checking the faith we have in a loving Creator as our ‘saving parachute’.

For those reading this story who have already recognised God in their life – the Bible says: “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (check out Joshua 1:9). This biblical promise is a daily ‘parachute of faith’ that allows each of us to be saved whenever we fall.

About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.

Want to read more inspirational stories of faith from this “Reverential Ramblings” series? Click here to read the strange story of how one orchestra member saved his colleagues from the wild temper tantrums of their world-famous conductor

There’s a bizarre story of a young lad who loved to take apart the family’s household appliances so he could see how they worked. His parents encouraged his curiosity (as they reasoned it was better than spending hours playing games on Xbox) just as long as their son put the equipment back together again in perfect working order.

His parents went out one afternoon for a few hours leaving the teenage boy at home alone – and this young, inquisitive tinkerer thought he would challenge himself. He decided to take apart the family’s antique grandfather clock.

He carefully swirled his screw-driver and twisted his favourite tools to have all of the vintage mechanisms lying across the lounge room floor. He admired the craftsmanship of the inner-workings of a hundred-year-old clock, and he was careful to remember where each part went.

As he put the antique timepiece back together again he felt a rush of adrenaline. His parents had warned him away from the heirloom clock for years as they feared the teenage boy would damage it, but now he’d been able to examine it without their knowledge and his parents would never know.

But, the feeling of achievement began to disappear as he neared the end of the restoration. The young lad had one piece left over and he had no idea where it was meant to go. As he considered an attempt to take the clock apart again he heard his parents’ car coming up the family driveway, and so he ran upstairs to his bedroom and thrust the left-over mechanism under his pillow.

That evening as the family ate dinner the antique clock operated as it always did. They watched a long movie together and the clock continued to strike the bells of the hour with military precision. As the family prepared for bed after a long day the boy’s worries began to ease. He sensed he’d escaped any parental discovery of an expensive heirloom’s unauthorised dismantling.

At midnight, as the teenager lay in bed thinking about the close-call, the clock began its usual chimes. The young lad counted them to help get to sleep – nine, ten, eleven, twelve…. thirteen, fourteen! The boy sat up in his bed. The clock continued ringing…. eighteen, nineteen, twenty. The boy – once again his body surging with adrenaline at the probability of being discovered – jumped out of bed. “Bong…. Bong…. Bong….” – Thirty-six times, thirty-seven times…the clock continued as if it would go on for eternity. He grabbed the missing piece from under his pillow and began to run down the hall towards his parents’ bedroom unsure of what he was going to say.

The teenager banged on the bedroom door, and with the chimes still ringing through the family home he yelled out the first thing that came into his head: “Wake up, everybody! Wake up! It’s later than it’s ever been!!”

This wry story is, in a way, a reminder of the Bible’s promise of eternity. Jesus of Nazareth spoke with His followers about having a sense of urgency regarding the coming of the Kingdom of God. He discouraged any delay in surrendering our sins to Him as our Saviour, and then seeking His ever-lasting forgiveness as we align our lives with Him.

To illustrate this sense of urgency Jesus told a story of five maidens who were sleepy, foolish and complacent, and another five who were wise and stayed ever-alert to the coming of their master. Jesus concluded the story by saying to His Disciples – “Keep watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which I am returning.” (Matthew 25:13)

So, for believers in the return of Jesus Christ there is a message. And that message is: “Wake up! It’s later than it’s ever been”

About this blog: Pastor David Riley is a Seventh-day Adventist minister residing on the Gold Coast in Australia. This article is from his “Reverential Ramblings” series – which you can subscribe to by clicking “follow” on this website.